Moorpark man arrested on suspicion of child pornography

Using fake online profiles, a Moorpark man tricked and extorted young fans of Justin Bieber and One Direction into sending him naked images of themselves as an extension of his involvement in an online bullying network, a court affidavit alleges.

He told authorities he engaged in these behaviors "because he had become ‘demented' and wanted to exert control" over his victims, the affidavit states.

Jeremy Brendan Sears, 23, was arrested Wednesday on federal child pornography charges by the Ventura Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for André Birotte Jr., U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

Sears made an initial appearance Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court. U.S. Magistrate Judge Alka Sagar ordered Sears held without bond. Sears is scheduled to be arraigned May 20.

An affidavit states Sears allegedly approached many of his victims after finding them on social networking groups for fans of music acts popular with young teenagers. Those acts included Bieber and the singing group One Direction, according to the affidavit.

Sears allegedly set up fake profiles that appeared to be from teenagers, Mrozek said in a news release. Sears is accused of using the bogus profiles to communicate with teens, sometimes beginning online romantic relationships with them and encouraging them to send sexually explicit videos and photos, Mrozek said.

In some cases, Sears is alleged to have threatened harm unless they sent him naked images, Mrozek said. Sears would distribute the images along with the victims' names and personal information online, Mrozek said.

Mrozek said in one case, Sears allegedly gained access to a victim's Facebook account and posted naked photos of her there.

Sears often would extort more images, Mrozek said.

The federal case isn't Sears' first scrape with law enforcement.

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office last year charged Sears with targeting a Ventura County teenage boy by claiming to be a teenage girl.

Sears was arrested in August in Mountain Meadow Park in Moorpark, according to previous news accounts in The Star. Authorities said Sears posed as a girl on the Internet and struck up an online relationship with a boy he arranged to meet at the park. Sears tried to engage the victim in inappropriate behavior at the park, police said. Sears later tried again to engage the victim in inappropriate sexual conduct, using threats to gain compliance, police said.

Sears was released on $50,000 bail in that case, according to Mrozek.

As a condition of his release, Sears was prohibited from contacting minors and accessing the Internet, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that a victim told investigators in April that Sears had used Internet devices at his home to recontact at least one of his minor victims.

David Hand, a special agent with the FBI who investigates the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, alleges in the affidavit that Sears was part of an online group called The Confederacy. The group "appears to have focused on harassing and bullying victims by means of ‘trolling' and ‘hijacking,' " authorities alleged in the affidavit.

Trolling involves posting inflammatory messages in an online forum or chat room with the intent of provoking an emotional response from members, according to the affidavit. And hijacking means gaining administrative control over someone's social network account.

Hand states in the affidavit that he was present when investigators from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office interviewed Sears in August 2013.

Sears allegedly admitted "he had posed as a female online in order to convince the minor male into sending Sears obscene photographs of himself and to meet with him in a park at night," the affidavit states. Sears also allegedly admitted that after he received some sexually explicit photographs, he redistributed them to websites "where they could be publicly viewed," the affidavit states.

Sears said "these activities were all taken because he had become ‘demented' and wanted to exert control over his minor victims by making them do what he wanted," the affidavit states.

Mrozek said Sears is suspected of allegedly victimizing several dozen teenagers, many in Southern California, and some overseas.

Not all the victims have been identified, Mrozek said.

Sears also made the news in late November when he was reported missing.

Simi Valley police issued an alert that a Jeremy Sears, 22, of Moorpark, was missing and that "his family would like to locate him on this Thanksgiving eve." Police issued a photo of him with the alert and said in their news release that "he has some mild developmental disabilities." Simi police said Wednesday night that the missing man was the same Jeremy Sears who was arrested in the child porn case.